Our memories not only serve the purpose of learning to avoid danger
from past experience, they serve as the glue that holds our sense of our
fleeting lives together into a linear personal narrative. For all of us
most memories are specific to our direct life experiences. There are
some memories though transcending personal encounters and that directly
affect us as well as society as a whole. The murder of John F. Kennedy
is one such experience from my life that profoundly affected me and my
generation, even though all I knew of the man was third hand at best.
Closer in time but equally, if not more indelible is the image of the
destruction wrought on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. I
would guess that almost all Americans who were alive on that day know
where they were and what they were doing. This past week we passed the
eleventh anniversary of this horror and innumerable solemn observances
occurred throughout the nation.

I can remember one phrase that began to be used over and over from
that day onward and my rising anger at the implications of that phrase. “This Changes Everything”. I’ve not been able to determine what news-person or pundit first
uttered those words, but afterwards the phrase reverberated incessantly.
As that fateful day passed, what took shape in the meme those words
created, was that the United States had undergone an experience that
changed all the rules we had purportedly lived by in dealing with the
world around us. In effect it was like saying “No more Mr. Nice Guy”.
Whether or not our country ever lived by the ideals it purported to live
by is another question entirely. My anger rose at the overuse of this
meme because I’ve spent my life wanting my country to live by a higher
standard in both national and international relations. I correctly saw
this meme as an attempted usurpation of this tragedy towards turning our
country away from our national ideals, such as they were. As the years
passed since 9/11/2001, we have
watched the erosion of these America Ideals. Two murderous wars have
been waged. Hundreds of thousands have died, or been maimed. Our
“national treasure” depleted, torture has become legalized and with the
passage of the “Patriot Act” we have watched the demolition of our
personal freedom. With this anniversary, two articles appeared
nationally that call into question what was really behind 9/11 and also
why there was a possibility of deterring it, which was ignored by the
G.W. Bush Administration. I want to discuss both of these articles and
then add my own thoughts on their real context.

Bob Graham was a Senator from Florida when 9/11 occurred. He was in
fact the long time Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of
the most powerful and important positions in the U.S. Senate:

“Senator Graham opposed the War in Iraq for fear it would divert U.S. attention from the fight in Afghanistan.
After reviewing information and meeting with military leaders in
February 2002, he decided the war would be a “distraction” that would
end poorly. He continues to oppose the Iraq War today.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Graham

The truth has been shown that Iraq was a war of poor choice and that
it had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. It is also proven that Iraq
had no “weapons of mass destruction” to justify our attack upon that
country either. To my mind history has added luster to Senator Graham,
as a man who was bravely willing to fight against the flow of “now this changes everything” propaganda and whom history has proven prescient. Therefore I took notice when I saw his byline on this Huffpost article: “Re-Open the 9/11 Investigation Now”

“The passage of time since
September 11, 2001, has not diminished the distrust many of us feel
surrounding the official story of how 9/11 happened and, more
specifically, who financed and supported it. After eleven years, the
time has come for the families of the victims, the survivors and all
Americans to get the whole story behind 9/11.

Yet the story of who may have
facilitated the 19 hijackers and the infrastructure that supported the
attacks — a crucial element of the narrative — has not been told. The
pieces we do have underscore how much more remains unknown.

Did the hijackers execute the plot
alone, or did they have the support of forces other than the known
leaders of al-Qaeda — a network even — that provided funds, assistance,
and cover?

It is not merely a question of the need to complete the historical record. It is a matter of national security today.”